Possibly my favourite group of all time, Depeche Mode, have done a remix of their single, Suffer Well, to be included in the latest expansion pack of The SIms: Open For Business.
Sung in Simlish.
DM just cannot get any cooler in my eyes.
Can be viewed, and downloaded, here.
We had, for the first time last night, a rather strange looking dessert: A Kiwano.
Also known as the African Horned Cucumber, this horny melon-shaped fruit has a toxic-green coloured flesh, with a surprising taste of bananas. It didn’t really rock my boat (too many seeds to navigate my way around), though Freya found it intriguing enough.
Anyway, the Kiwano (like the Kiwi) is native to New Zealand, and it got me thinking about a possible etymological connection.
In my world, the prefix “ki” is Maori for “hanging in/from a tree”. Then, I reckon “wi” and “wano” are adjectival opposites, “small thing” and “big/ger thing”respectively. Thus we have kiwi, meaning “small thing hanging from a tree”, and kiwano, “bigger thing hanging from a tree”.
Wouldn’t that be top if it were the case?
Sadly, the kiwi(fruit) is native to China, and is often, to the annoyance of the inhabitants of New Zealand, confused with the small, brown, furry bird of the same name. To a New Zealander a kiwi is always the bird, the kiwifruit (or Chinese gooseberry) is the fruit.
I was in my local supermarket today, the third time in as many days thanks to American Express incorrectly blocking my card, and then not putting things right when they said they had (don’t get me started on that).
A longish line to the checkout had formed, when the man who had just had his stuff processed asked for a plastic bag. Unfortunately for the cashier there were none left at his station, which seemed to cause annoyance to said man. He walked to the next checkout and fetched….a single bag.
Had he have been intelligent, or not a cunt, he would have taken with him a whole box, but he didn’t. I became, as I often do, well pissed-off with his behaviour.
I did furnish the cashier with a box of bags, giving me the right to pen this rant. Hello moral high-ground, my name’s Jon.
I phoned my internet service provider yesterday to inform them of a change of address. A simple task, one may think.
Annoyance #1 Our home telephone, being a funky 70’s example, is not a touch-tone. Had to use a mobile phone.
Annoyance #2 The customer service number I rang does not accept calls from mobile-phones. Was given another number to ring, but I didn’t have a pen at hand, so I fetched one and rang the number again.
Annoyance #3 Had to press a series of numbers (1,2,1, then my six-digit customer code) to get through to the correct department and thus make my life so much easier. Having done this, I was then presented with a 30-second voice message telling me all about the extra services I could order via their site. Now 30 seconds is not normally a long time, but I do not care for their adverts. And, despite all these wonderful things I’m being offered, I cannot notify them of a change of address using this method they are so willing to inform me about.
Annoyance #4 Having semi-listened to the recorded advert, was put through to, what I assume, the correct department, where I once again had to answer a number of questions to further help me. Waited a short time, to then be told there were a number of people before me and I should expect a ten-minute wait. Which I refused to do.
Is this really what customer service is nowadays? I seldom use my phone, and avoid any such contact with companies wherever possible. I cannot, for the life of me, understand how such a basic request can get caught up in technowank.
This entry was supposed to have been written and blogged in December, as conventions expect, but I never really got my act together. So, a month overdue, I’d like the present me to remind any future me what it was that made 2005 sparkle.
Note to self: these are not in any specific order, except the first one, which beats all else hands-down.
1. My girlfirend, Jo, and my daughter, Freya – life, whilst being full of wankers and morons, has become more bearable thanks to 17 months of Jon/Jo DNA. She is the best thing that has happened to me, and I thank Jo for being the best thing that Freya and I have.
2. The Internet – without which several of the following highlights would never have been experienced.
3. My game blog – Extremely good fun to write, and has made me realise that trying to pen a(n interesting) blog is a lot harder than it looks.
4. New music – It truly is a fantastic feeling to find new music that one really, really likes. Thanks to the Internet (see number 2) a few bands have found their way into my oft-listened to list, specifically The Mitchell Brothers and Antony and The Johnsons.
5. Seeing Kraftwerk live – I never thought I would get to see them, but they came to Stockholm and performed only as Kraftwerk can.
6. Ricky Gervais – This guy can do no wrong in my eyes. The Office, Extras, his two live shows (Politics and Animals), and his podcast for The Guardian have got me crying with laughter. Considering the world IS full of wankers and morons, this is no mean feat.
7. Playing Neverwinter Nights with Leigh, a friend from England – The playing of NWN is almost enough in itself to feature in this list, but playing with Leigh makes it “brilliant”, as he would no doubt say. We’ve got to know Leigh and Carrie loads more because of NWN, and they really are a wonderful pair of people. Again, no mean feat when the world is full etc, etc.
I’m certain there are more I could add to the above, but for the moment I’m all thunked-out. Upadates are, therefor, to be expected.